Quality of life, quantified.
Supporting social care with better planning tools
Epona is a secure platform that helps services plan and deliver Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) and PERMA quality of life planning in a consistent and person-centred way.
PBS supports behaviour planning, while PERMA tracks wellbeing across Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment.
It makes planning easier to update, easier to use, and easier to share. That means support is shaped by the person, not by the paperwork.
Co-designed, trusted, compliant
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Built with providers, practitioners and families
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Based on recognised PBS frameworks and the PERMA wellbeing model
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Trusted by care professionals
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Meets NHS-level data standards
Planning that supports real lives.
Too often support plans are generic, out of date, or disconnected from daily life. Epona changes that.
The platform makes planning:
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Interactive: individuals, families and staff can all add updates in ways that work for them
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Flexible: contribute by voice note, text, photo or video, using a phone, tablet or computer
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Accessible: supports multiple languages and easy-read formats
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Live: plans move with the person and can be updated wherever support is happening, not hidden in a file or left in a folder
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Quality of life tracking: built around the PERMA model, so services can capture wellbeing in areas that matter most
With quality of life and behaviour planning built in, support becomes more consistent and more person-centred.
Developed by Epona in collaboration with providers, PBS specialists, and people with lived experience:
Why Epona?
Support planning today is often inconsistent. Plans may be generic or out of date. Staff lose time to paperwork. Quality of life is rarely captured in a way that informs daily support. Commissioners and inspectors want clearer evidence of good practice.
Epona combines Positive Behaviour Support with PERMA quality of life monitoring. This ensures services can respond to behaviours of concern while also supporting joy, purpose, connection and progress.
Epona helps services respond earlier, plan more clearly, focus on strengths and quality of life, and show evidence that is useful for inspection and funding.
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Save time: PBS plans created in 2–3 days instead of 4–5 weeks
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Retain staff: reduces admin burden, lowering burnout (£5–6k saved per staff member retained)
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Prevent crises: avoiding a single behavioural hospital admission can save up to £10,000
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Evidence compliance: ready for CQC inspections and commissioner reporting
Our Value Proposition
Empowering Innovation in Technology
Epona is a digital Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) platform designed with and for providers supporting people with complex needs. It helps services plan better, respond earlier, and work more collaboratively — without increasing burden on frontline teams.
At its core, Epona combines intelligent planning tools with the option of human behavioural oversight. This means you get the efficiency of digital systems alongside the clinical assurance needed for high-quality, person-centred care.
We focus on:
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Clear, accessible PBS plans grounded in everyday practice
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Quality of life tracking to highlight changes that matter
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Family and team input to ensure support reflects real life
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Practical tools that help staff stay consistent and confident
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Evidence outputs that support inspection, oversight, and funding discussions
Epona PBS is co-developed with services supporting people with complex needs and behaviours that challenge. It’s designed to reduce duplication, support better outcomes, and provide visibility without increasing admin time.
Whether you’re a provider, commissioner, or quality lead, Epona helps you embed PBS in a way that is meaningful, measurable, and sustainable.
"We are not interested in automating care. We want to free up staff to spend more time with the person, not the paperwork."
Epona PBS reduces subjectivity and guesswork, supporting more consistent and confident decisions. It’s about making good support easier to plan, deliver and understand.
What is Positive Behaviour Support?
Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) is an evidence-based approach that helps people with learning disabilities, autism, or complex needs live safer, fuller, and more independent lives.
At its core, PBS is about understanding the reasons behind behaviours of concern and creating the right conditions for people to thrive. It combines:
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Proactive strategies: making environments and routines work for the person
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Early warning signs: spotting triggers and acting before a crisis develops
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Reactive plans: keeping people safe if behaviours escalate
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Recovery strategies: supporting people to feel calm and rebuild confidence
Unlike traditional behaviour management, PBS is not about control or punishment. It is values-based, person-centred, and focused on improving quality of life. Research shows that when people’s needs, choices, and wellbeing are prioritised, behaviours of concern naturally reduce.
Epona makes PBS easier to deliver in practice, ensuring plans are consistent, accessible, and live so that good support becomes everyday reality, not just good intention.
What is PERMA?
Epona includes PERMA planning to make quality of life visible in everyday support.
PERMA stands for:
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Positive Emotion: capturing moments of joy and enjoyment
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Engagement: understanding when people feel absorbed and interested
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Relationships: noticing and supporting connection with others
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Meaning: recognising purpose, values and sense of direction
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Accomplishment: celebrating achievements, large and small
By tracking these areas, services can see what is changing, what is working, and where extra support may be needed. It ensures planning is not just about reducing risk but about helping people to thrive.
How it works
Designed for supported living, residential care and community support.
Features include:
Structured PBS plans covering proactive, early warning, reactive and recovery strategies
PERMA plans and dashboards showing progress in Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment
Guided prompts that keep plans practical and person-centred
Pen pictures and wellbeing profiles that highlight what matters to the individual
Secure access for staff, families and the individual
Tools for spotting early signs of change or distress
Options for updates in voice, video, text or image, available in multiple languages
Mobile-friendly design for use on phones, tablets or desktop
Built-in quality checks to support PBS fidelity and safeguarding
Plans can be reviewed through a quality process led by people, either by Epona or by a provider’s own PBS or clinical team.
Join the waiting list?
We are inviting early adopters to join the Epona waiting list ahead of release.
Joining gives you:
Early access
Priority access to the live platform from autumn 2025
Shape the future
A chance to shape new
features with your feedback
Peer network
Community of providers
improving PBS and PERMA practice
Explore
Consistent and responsive
way to plan and deliver support
Meet The Team
Get to know the team driving Epona's success.
Fran Ferris
Co-founder and CEO
23 years of experience across social impact and public service. Masters in Public Administration.
Angela Fletcher
Advisor
Qualified Learning Disability Nurse, CEO of several care organisations, and over 35 years of leadership in the sector.
These case studies, shared by our partners at the PBS Centre of Excellence, highlights the transformative impact of truly person-centred Positive Behaviour Support. While Epona was not directly involved, the approach and outcomes align closely with the values our platform is built to support.
Case studies
From long-term hospital detention to independent living
Joan (name changed) had lived for over 30 years in a secure hospital.
A PBS team centred on her goals helped her move into a home of her choice and reconnect with her independence.
Within two months of moving, Joan had reduced to 2:1 support, travelled by train, baked with her team, and reconnected with her independence — on her terms.
Our platform is designed to help services deliver this kind of transformation not as a one-off — but as a standard.
With Epona, services can embed person-centred PBS as standard practice — with the tools to guide, record, and reflect on what works.
From social withdrawal to community connection
A young man experiencing high anxiety gradually built trust through consistent, person-centred PBS.
He moved from isolation to initiating friendships, hosting BBQs and building confidence in real time.
Epona is designed to help services make this kind of transformation part of standard practice, not a rare event.
Ethics and Safeguards
Epona is built to support people and staff, never to replace them. Every feature is designed with safety, transparency and accountability at its core.
Our principles:
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Human first: All plans and alerts are reviewed by qualified staff before being used in practice
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Clear and transparent: Anything suggested by the system is clearly marked and comes with an explanation of how it was generated
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Ethically designed: The platform never pretends to be a person, never makes autonomous decisions, and never engages in open-ended chat
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Safeguarding built in: If a concern is raised, the system flags it for a professional. It will never act as a counsellor or confidant
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Privacy by design: All sensitive data is stored securely in the UK, with strict access controls and full audit trails
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Accountable: Every suggestion is logged, along with who reviewed it and what action was taken
What this means for you:
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Safer, more consistent planning that keeps professional judgement at the centre
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Transparency for individuals, families and commissioners about how decisions are made
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Confidence that personal information is protected to NHS and GDPR standards
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Assurance that technology reduces admin burden and supports better care, not replaces human relationships
Epona is committed to ethics-first design.
We believe technology should only ever be a tool, not a replacement for human interaction. We make sure support is consistent, person-centred, and safe.
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Human first: all outputs reviewed by qualified staff
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Transparent: everything AI suggests is clearly labelled and explained
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Safe: no open-ended chat, no anthropomorphism
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Privacy by design: secure UK data storage, full audit trails
Our commitment to responsible AI
Epona is proud to support the Oxford Responsible AI in Social Care Pledge. We believe AI should empower, not replace, the relationships, empathy and professional judgment that define great care.
Our pledge in practice:
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Putting people at the centre: We co-design our tools with people who draw on care and support, as well as families, staff and professionals. Our platform is designed to improve quality of life and autonomy, not automate decisions.
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Prioritising transparency and accountability: We are clear about what our AI can and cannot do. All outputs are explainable, auditable and designed to support, not replace, human judgment.
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Embedding human oversight: Every PBS plan is reviewed and signed off by a qualified PBS practitioner. AI supports reasoning but is never a substitute for it.
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Being honest about risks and limitations: We do not oversell. We are upfront about where data or automation may fall short and work closely with partners to ensure safe and ethical deployment.
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Committing to ongoing learning: We run structured pilots with care providers to gather feedback, adapt and improve. Our roadmap includes continuous iteration in response to user needs and ethical challenges.
Epona is committed to ensuring that AI in social care is safe, ethical and person-centred, always supporting the values that matter most.
